This image was lost some time after publication.

Did you know there was a place in New York called "New Dorp Beach?" We've been here a while now, but we'd never heard of it. Though we're told that it was a big controversy when Dorp Beach changed its formula to New Dorp Beach. Fortunately, the best-selling video series "Dorp On Golf" has apparently kept the Staten Island community in the public eye.

Anyway. We got distracted. The man who police say attacked two lesbians at (deep breath) the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade and Festival in Staten Island on Saturday is proclaiming his innocence. The lesbians and the cops (who are not lesbians, though that does remind us a bachelor party we went to once) say New Dorp Beach resident John Alla "hurled a slew of homophobic slurs and knocked the women's hats off" during the parade. But Alla says he "plucked the feathers off their hats" because they hit him with a marching stick, and that he had no idea it was a gay pride parade. Money Quote:

As police corralled him on the ground, Alla referred to the Quran and yelled out: "This isn't Brooklyn, this isn't Queens, this isn't Manhattan, this isn't the Bronx! There are families here! It's against God!"

In a shocking sidebar, this was the first ever gay pride rally in Staten Island. Serious, no kidding.—WL

S.I. Man In Gay Fray Plays Blame Game [NYDN]
400 Show Pride In Staten Island [Staten Island Advance]